Worst Space Debris Events of All Time

By SPACE.com Staff |
March 8, 2013 05:20pm ET

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Growing Threat of Space Debris

The space around Earth is a crowded space packed with nearly 22,000 spent rocket stages, dead or dying satellites and countless crumbs of human-made orbital flotsam. An average of one object has reentered Earth's atmosphere every day.

Here are 10 of the most memorable manmade things that have rained down on us.

Satellite Shootdown

Photo Credit: Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Navy

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Satellite Shootdown

The U.S.
Navy intercepted its defunct spy satellite USA-193 on Feb. 20, 2008, sending a trail of debris
that some amateur astronomers reported falling over the northwestern United States and Canada. Department of Defense
officials said they hadn't recovered any debris larger than a football.

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Noggin' Knocker

Photo Credit: NASA

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Noggin' Knocker

A woman
in Turley, Oklahoma, got a noggin-knock in January 1997
when she was struck with a lightweight fragment of charred woven material. She
was not injured. The sky junk was
identified as debris from a Delta 2 booster, which reentered the Earth's
atmosphere on Jan. 22, 1997. Other debris from that booster included a steel
propellant tank and a titanium pressure sphere.

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Mystery Ball

Photo Credit: NASA

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Mystery Ball

Several
mysterious spheres turned up in Australia
in the 1960s, with some speculating these balls could be connected with UFO phenomenon.
One such titanium sphere was spotted in Merkanooka, Western
Australia. Dubbed the Merkanooka
ball, the metal sphere was later identified as a tank used for drinking water
in the Gemini V spacecraft, which was launched on Aug. 21, 1965, and reentered
the atmosphere and splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean
on Aug. 29 that year.